Chef Michel Nischan Praises Louisville

Healthy food advocate Michel Nischan says Louisville’s local food economy is a benchmark in the farm to table movement.

Nischan is a chef in Connecticut, but his father grew up in Kentucky. He visited Louisville last summer for the festival of faiths and says he was impressed by the city’s strong support for local food.

“Louisville has just become an exemplar in local food support in its local businesses; the whole farm to table thing has been kicking up quite a bit around the country,” he says “now it’s like the in or the cool think, but Louisville’s been really a player in that for some time.”

Nischan will be at Harvest Restaurant on Market Street today (Monday) while he is in town promoting his non-profit organization Wholesome Wave. The group’s programs benefit underserved communities as well as farmers by leveraging private funds with government funding.

Nischan says he wants to bring his organization to his father’s home state and he says Louisville has a vibrant local food economy.

“It’s an amazing town, it’s an amazing, very special place, there aren’t many cities like that in the country, everyone is trying to drive a stake in the ground on the local food movement,” Nischan says “but very few are so committed top to bottom.”

Wholesome Wave’s Double Value program works to get private investors to match the value of food stamps used in local farmers’ markets.